During the coming year, work will continue on delineation of the participation of bone in acid-base regulation of the body and as the major non-extracellular store of labile sodium. A new project has been initiated to study children of patients with polycystic kidney disease to develop diagnostic criteria which will permit earlier identification of children who eventually will develop the disease. A new joint project with the behavioral psychologists is investigating the functions of the autonomic nervous system in dialysis patients. We have turned up an amazing lack of response among dialysis patients to changes in skin resistance following appropriate stimuli. Using dialytic techniques we have designed a prototype of a device for the extracorporeal carbamylation of blood for the treatment of sickle cell disease. We have developed the first successful model of acute hepatic failure (dog) and demonstrated the efficacy of cross circulation as a treatment for hepatic coma.